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Can I do a property search using webservices?

Versions: n/a, FAQ number: 207, Old FAQ number: 958

Q: Can I do a property search using webservices?

A: Yes, see example below.


// Include the web references namespace. Here we have named it EPiServer4
// and it references the /WebServices/DataFactoryService.asmx file. 
using TestApplication.EPiServer4;

// Initialize a DataFactoryService object for webservice calls
private EPiServer4.DataFactoryService _wsFactory =
                          new EPiServer4.DataFactoryService();

// Example function that searches for a substring in the MainBody property.

private RawPage[] SearchPages(int searchStartPageID, string searchText)
{
   PageReference pageRef = new PageReference();

   pageRef.ID = searchStartPageID; 

   PropertyCriteria criteria = new PropertyCriteria();
   criteria.Type = PropertyDataType.LongString;
   criteria.Name = "MainBody";
   criteria.Value = searchText;

   // Search for a substring in a string
   criteria.StringCondition =  StringCompareMethod.Contained;

   // If we want to search for numeric values we would set criteria.Condition
   // instead, for eg. criteria.Condition = CompareCondition.Equal;

   return _wsFactory.FindPagesWithCriteria(
                             pageRef, new PropertyCriteria[]{criteria});
}


private void SearchPages(string searchText)
{       
   RawPage[] matchingPages = SearchPages(30, searchText);

   foreach(RawPage page in pages)
   {  
      Response.Write("{0} - {1}<br>",
            GetPropertyValue(page, "PageLink"),
            GetPropertyValue(page, "PageName"));
   }      
}

// Helper function to get a property's value.     
private string GetPropertyValue(EPiServer4.RawPage rawPage, string propertyName)
{
   try
   {
      return rawPage.Property[GetPropertyIndex(rawPage, propertyName)].Value;
   }
   catch(Exception)
   {
      return String.Empty;
   }
}

// Helper function to find out a property's index.
private int GetPropertyIndex(RawPage rawPage, string propertyName)
{         
   for(int index = 0; index  < rawPage.Property.Length; index++)
      if (rawPage.Property[index].Name == propertyName)
         return index;

   return -1;        
}

List of property names

To find out the details of all searchable meta data, please see the EPiServer.Core.PageData.Property description in the EPiServer4 SDK.

Note: remember to configure your IIS security settings, otherwise you will get access denied errors when you try to access the web services. See the web services technote for more information.
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